


begin again

by enchantmentable



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Dream Smp, Duelling, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Non-Graphic Violence, Temporary Character Death, Villain Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), exile arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:54:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28279479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enchantmentable/pseuds/enchantmentable
Summary: “fight me, you green prick. duel me again, just like we did for l’manburg. and this time,” he declared, hands shaking at his sides where he’d balled them into fists, “this time, i’ll win.”or: tommy takes matters into his own hands.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), No Romantic Relationship(s), Technoblade & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 105





	begin again

**Author's Note:**

> all i want is this Exact Scenario to happen on the smp pls i don't think i'm asking for much- /hj
> 
> warnings for non-graphic violence and temporary character death + mention of blood and blink-and-you'll-miss-it manipulative behaviors
> 
> and of course, this is about the characters played on the smp and the story the being acted out on it, not the cc's themselves

“i’m here to make my one wish, technoblade. hand over tommyinnit.”

“dream, c’mon. let’s think about this for a second—”

_“now.”_

techno stood there, eyes darting between the boy he’d come to see as a brother and the man he’d been told was a god. 

dream stood there, movements unwavering as he held out an expectant hand.

and tommy stood there, all but cowering as the two most powerful people he’d ever known argued about his future as though it were theirs.

“absolute reciprocity, right?” dream prompted, and though tommy couldn’t see his expression behind that mask, he could hear the raise of a single, judgmental eyebrow in the way he spoke those words.

“absolute reciprocity,” techno repeated dully. slowly, he turned. “tommy—”

“no.”

everything froze.

the moment passed though, and dream reacted first. “no?” he asked, amusement coloring his tone.

“no,” tommy insisted, ten times more firmly. “you aren’t the boss of me, bitch. you don’t get to decide what i do and where i go.”

“tommy,” said two voices in unison, one full of condescension and one a hissed warning.

“tommy,” dream repeated. “come on now. i’m your friend, aren’t i? don’t you believe i have your best interests in mind?”

clenching his jaw, tommy replied in a quiet voice that was so unlike himself. “i’m starting to believe that you really, really don’t.”

dream cocked his head. “hm. clever, aren’t you?” 

“yeah, you bet i am.”

“not so clever that you remembered i can kill you for good whenever i please though, right?”

a shock of cold ran through him at that, but tommy laughed his way past it. “you don’t want me dead. if you did, you’d’ve killed me back when you fuckin’ exiled me, man. there were— there were so many chances where you could’ve just _let_ me die too. but you didn’t. it’s never my time to die, right?”

“i didn’t want you to die because i had _use_ for you, but clearly your _usefulness_ has run out. tommy, i will kill you where you stand if you don’t _fucking listen to me._ ”

tommy let the words hang in the air as he did everything in his power to ignore the frenzied pounding of his heart. “mm, i don’t think i will.”

techno’s head whipped towards tommy in thinly veiled horror. “what are you doing?”

tommy, as per usual, ignored him. “fight me, you green prick. duel me again, just like we did for l’manburg. and this time,” he declared, hands shaking at his sides where he’d balled them into fists, “this time, i’ll win.”

“and you do know that if you don’t, you’ll die. you’ll die _for good._ ”

“i know,” tommy said, forcing his voice into its usual overconfident lilt. “but i won’t die, because i am _going_ to win.”

“so confident,” dream murmured, and tommy could just see his smirk beneath the mask. “too bad confidence doesn’t matter. i’m better than you at _everything,_ tommy. you don’t stand a chance.”

tommy, for his part, pretended he didn’t hear him, turning instead to techno. “i need your bow,” he said.

“you’re out of your mind.”

“i’m _not._ ”

“i can fight him for you, tommy. i have a better chance than you do, and i’m not going to _permanently die_ if he kills me.”

“no. this is _my_ fight, techno. _i’m_ going to be the one to win it.”

techno shook his head, his words almost pleading. “if you won’t let me fight for you, then tommy, please just… go with him. it’s better than _dying,_ isn’t it?”

for a moment, tommy considered his words. for a moment, he considered saying, _“is it?”_

but the moment passed, and tommy merely smiled. “have a little faith in me. i’m not going to die.” after a pause, he added tentatively, “maybe it runs in the family?”

techno visibly softened, but his gruff words stayed at odds with the obvious fondness in his expression. “you’re not my brother.”

“but can i borrow your bow?”

sighing, techno pulled it from the depths of his cloak. “use it well.”

grinning, tommy turned back to dream. “are you ready?”

“well, we both need to be on half a heart first, don’t we?”

“oh! right, we do, yeah.”

calmly, dream turned towards technoblade. “do you have any potions of harming you could spare?”

“uhh, yeah. d’you want me to go grab them?” 

“if you would be so kind,” dream said with a slight incline of his head.

techno vanished into his house and emerged a few moments later, two potions in hand.

“one for each of us now,” dream ordered, gesturing to himself and then to tommy.

technoblade obliged, spalshing them each with a dark purple liquid. tommy suppressed a wince at the burning feeling that spread through him.

“good,” dream said with a nod, casually rolling his shoulders as though he was adjusting to the pain. “now, technoblade, i need you to get us each down to exactly half a heart.”

_“me?”_

“yes, you. surely you don’t mind dropkicking a child?” dream asked, a teasing hint to his words.

techno looked like he was suppressing the urge to scream. his jaw worked for a few moments before he finally spit out, “fine.”

he walked over to tommy, and with all the gentleness he could manage, beat him into the ground. even through the faint haze of pain, tommy could tell how careful techno was being, only hitting parts of him that he knew would be the least painful. tommy kept a careful eye on his health level until he finally coughed out, “one heart!” 

techno backed off immediately, standing over tommy and reaching out a hand to help him stand up. he elbowed him once more in the side with incredible care, brushing the snow off of tommy’s shoulders when he’d finished. 

tommy coughed again, spitting out a mouthful of blood onto the pure white snow before grinning up at techno with slightly red-stained teeth. “thank you, big man.” 

techno didn’t answer, instead making his way across the field. unlike he had with tommy, techno wasted no time being considerate when it came to beating the absolute shit out of dream. he punched him into the snow first, dropping his knee onto dream’s chest so hard that tommy could have almost sworn he heard something crack. techno lifted himself up just enough that he was able to deal a swift kick to dream’s side with his other leg before falling back into position and absolutely raining punches down on every part of dream he could reach.

“that’s enough,” dream finally said, rolling out from under techno’s knee to avoid a final punch that left a near crater in the snow where he’d been just moments before. “i’m on half a heart now, technoblade. you can stop.”

the glint in techno’s eyes said that he very much didn’t want to stop, but he did, standing up and walking back to the steps of his house. 

tommy watched him go, refusing to look directly at dream until he absolutely had to. he pulled out the bow techno had lent him in the meantime, painstakingly nocking the arrow as he listened to the quiet crunch of snow that signaled its owner walking away.

when tommy looked up again, dream was staring at him, a terrifying smile just barely visible before he pushed the mask off of his face completely, letting it fall to the ground. then that smile tore into tommy’s very soul. 

“on your count,” dream called, not taking his eyes off tommy.

“right,” techno said, eyeing them both warily. “meet in the middle, in front of me, then turn your backs to each other.”

tommy made his way through the snow, trying to convince himself that his shivers were just due to the cold while dream continued to watch him like a hawk would a mouse. he stopped in front of techno, turning away from dream almost immediately.

there was a soft chuckle behind him. “scared?”

“you wish,” tommy replied through gritted teeth as his grip on the bow tightened.

“on my count,” techno called into the silence. “one, two, three, four.”

tommy began to walk forward in careful, measured steps, breathing slowly.

“five, six, seven.”

his heart was being so incredibly loud. he could barely hear techno over the ringing it caused in his ears, but he pressed forward. just a few more steps.

“eight, nine, ten paces.”

there was a split second of stillness.

“fire.”

tommy whipped around, eyes landing on dream immediately. he pulled back the string of the bow and took aim in that same moment, distantly registering that dream had done the same.

his hands were shaking.

he couldn’t afford that now. he had to get this shot off before dream did. 

his hands were still shaking. he was _scared._ scared of being shot, of failing, scared of _dream_ most of all, and—

tommy didn’t want to die.

so he clenched his jaw and held his breath, steadying his shaking hands for only a moment as he let the arrow fly. 

in the same motion, he dropped flat to the ground as dream’s arrow whizzed over him.

the air was silent after that. 

cautiously, tommy pushed himself up to his knees so he could see what had happened.

dream was lying on his back, propped up on his elbows across the field from him, breathing shallowly. 

tommy stood up, taking a single step towards him. dream didn’t make any move against him, so he took another. two more, and he could see what had happened. 

his arrow had lodged itself in dream’s chest, and blood was quickly spreading from the wound, coloring his bright green clothes with red. 

_he’d won._

this time, _dream_ was the one gasping for his last breaths of air as he bled out on the ground. _dream_ was the one who hadn’t managed to dodge the arrow. _dream_ was the one who’d been shot.

dream was the one who had _lost._

tommy ran towards him, a giddy feeling bubbling up in his chest. he fell to his knees beside dream’s dying body, whispering out an almost disbelieving, “i won.”

dream glared up at him, hissing through the obvious pain, “this isn’t over.”

“i know,” tommy said, perfectly chipper as the light began to fade from dream’s eyes. “this is just the beginning.”

_dream was shot by tommyinnit._

**Author's Note:**

> if you enjoyed this, i have a [tumblr blog](https://enchantmentable.tumblr.com/) and love clout <3
> 
> (kudos and comments are endlessly adored too)


End file.
